judge clears way for Zeppelin stairway trial

This Led Zeppelin copyright story has been on the back burner for couple years and now a LA judge has cleared the way for a trial. The Judge said there were enough similarities between “stairway to heaven” and a song called “taurus” done by the band “Spirit” to warrant a jury trial. The lawsuit was instigated by Michael Skidmore, who’s a trustee for the estate of late Spirit guitarist Randy California. Spirit and Led Zeppelin toured together in 1968-69. Michael claims Randy should be given writing credit on “stairway to heaven” because of the similarities in the songs.

US district judge Gary Klausner said a jury could find “substantial” similarity between the first two minutes of Stairway and Taurus. The trial is set for May 10th.